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[Wyvern]

Lasers!

• Rift Lance: Simple, straightforwards, effective. A small slot version of the phase lance, basically; it's a bit expensive for what it does, but if you need non-ammo-limited anti-armor in a small energy slot, this is what you use. Also good as anti-fighter; it does enough damage in a burst to deal reasonably well with even shielded fighters. Performs extremely poorly with IPDAI, though - the Rift Lance has its niche, and should not be used outside of that.
  Overall Grade: B. When you want what it offers and have the slots and OP to spare, it's good. But that niche is a narrow one, and you'll probably get more of these than you actually want to use.
• Rift Beam: Technically functional-ish? It's decent at its job - point-defense and anti-fighter - if you've got a spare medium energy turret that's right on the leading edge of your hull. So... some Fury builds, you could use one on an asymmetric Medusa, it'd probably not be terrible on the Ziggurat if you decided to use the smalls for missiles but still wanted PD... that sort of thing. The problem, though, is the way the targeting AI interfaces with the weapon's turn rate. This weapon is at its best when fired continuously and swept across targets; instead, the autofire AI will flicker it on, run it until the rift takes out what it was shooting at, then flicker it off again and pick a new target, resulting in a PD solution that, on paper, should be able to just cut through an entire swarm of missiles - but instead fares little better than a regular heavy burst pd would.
  Overall Grade: C. It's an extremely niche weapon, and while it's functional within that niche, that's really all that can be said for it.
• Rift Cascade Emitter: Murderous doom in a gun. Pairs well with a Tachyon Lance - they've got the same firing rate. The AI has issues aiming the thing, though; if it's under AI control, and the host ship is turning (and outside of simulator duels, the host ship is basically always turning), and the target is anything smaller than a cruiser... it's going to miss. (And then sometimes it misses the cruisers, too.) Also, if you have two of these in a linked group, they usually pick either the same or almost-the-same locations for their rifts, which just doesn't look as good as if the rifts arced in opposite directions.
  Overall Grade: A+. Only held back from S-grade by its mediocre performance on AI-controlled ships.

Freeze Guns!

• Cryoblaster: Sure, it's frag damage. But it's an awful lot of frag damage all at once. Crushes light armor; savages even heavily armored ships once that armor's been stripped; still decent against shields. If you've got these, they're worth using. (A bit short-ranged when mixed with ballistics, but still workable; the extreme per-shot damage lets them take the place of dedicated armor-cracking HE weaponry, and it's generally okay if your armor-crackers are a bit shorter-ranged than your kinetics.)
  Overall Grade: A. Just an all-around good gun.
• Cryoflamer: An SO-weapon for non-SO ships. Or for SO ships, that works too. Best when used with expanded magazines; the sustained DPS is nothing to write home about, but the initial burst will just mulch frigates and destroyers and put a serious hurt on even cruisers and capitals. Fair warning: that initial burst can put some serious hurt on your own flux bar, too. And the extremely short range means you want this on a highly mobile ship with an aggressive captain.
  Overall Grade: A+. Has some definite flaws and drawbacks, but is extremely effective when you can bring it to bear.

Exotic Blasters!

• Minipulser: Kinetic damage for a small energy slot. If that's what you're after, this thing is your only option. I'm not really sure why it's a hybrid-type weapon, though; it's not competitive with ballistic kinetic options. (Yes, yes, initial burst damage. Except that its ammunition capacity is rather low, so there's not actually that much of a burst; if you really need egregious amounts of kinetic damage in a small ballistic slot, sacrifice a bit more range and mount a machine gun.)
  Overall Grade: B+. It's not so much 'good' as it is 'the only game in town for what it does'. Useful, sure, but nothing amazing.
• Disintegrator: Extremely niche, but still useful. Very very good at stripping armor, especially heavy armor. Pairs well with, say, a cryoblaster and a cryoflamer on a Hyperion; the Disintegrator on its own is pretty poor at chewing through hull (or shields). The problem is once again the AI: it seems to treat Disintegrator shots as low damage (or perhaps is prioritizing 'only fire when you're sure you'll hit armor' the way this thread describes Breach SRMs as working?), with the end result that an AI ship with disintegrators - unless you've managed to make the entire build flux-neutral - will usually just turn the things off and never fire them.
  Overall Grade: C. It's possible for the player to make good use of one, maybe two of these. But they're rather niche weapons to start with, and the AI issues don't help.
• Volatile Particle Driver: I've actually never seen this one drop in-game, so my experience is limited. Seems like a good thing to mount one of on a Radiant? The burst nature of it works against its special ability of losing shots and DPS at long range, as the AI will waste most-or-all of that burst while the target's still far away. Could benefit from something like how PD weapons hold onto charges? Make it fire at charge-regen-rate at max range and conserve ammunition until targets are closer? ...Though that would also fare poorly against stuff that's just hovering at max range, so, hm.
  Overall Grade: ?. I think it's probably in the C-to-B range, but I'm not sure.
• Reality Disruptor: Oh, this is a fun one. Can for some reason go in missile slots? I'm not sure why, but I'm certainly not arguing with anything that makes my XIV Legions a bit less ammo-dependent. Not all that much kill-things-ness to it, but where else are you going to find a weapon that just blithely flies right through shields? Probably not a good choice for something like a Sunder where it needs to serve as a main gun, but great on anything where you can afford to spend a large slot on something supplemental.
  Overall Grade: A+. Fun, effective, feels overpowered without actually being outright murderous doom, works well with the AI.

Missiles!

• Antimatter SRM Launcher: Did you need an antimatter blaster that can fire three-(or six, or nine depending on hullmod and skills)-shot bursts, and that fits into a small missile slot? If your answer was 'no'... you're probably either wrong... or outfitting a ship that can't mount small missiles. These things are great, frequently worth installing in even medium missile slots. The only downsides are the relatively low ammo regen rate, the significant flux cost (much like the cryoflamer you can burst-flux yourself right into the danger zone), and that tracking on these can get a bit wonky sometimes, missing small, agile targets.
  Overall Grade: S+. I re-iterate, these things are great.
• Resonator MRM Launcher: Compared to a sabot pod, the Resonator is expensive and lacking in punch... but it also has better range and tracking, and never runs out of ammunition. Probably not worth using on a ship with Expanded Missile Racks and a Missile Spec officer, but still just generally a good weapon. (And I, personally, am quite fond of giving my AI-controlled ships weapons that they can't completely waste all their ammunition with.)
  Overall Grade: B, maybe B+. It's good, but not amazing, and even for the role of medium kinetic-damage missile, you won't always want to be using these.
• Rift Torpedo Launcher: Slow. Extraordinarily expensive to fire - especially if you have increased missile ammunition and fire multiple shots in rapid succession. Basically will not hit frigates - see 'slow' - but is at least a fairly durable projectile that won't get casually shot down by light point-defenses. On the other hand, when it does hit, whatever you were shooting at is going to feel it. Works best if you can actually fire off multiple rounds, too, whether by having bonus ammunition or just mounting more than one of the things. Can also fit into large energy mounts; a pretty good option for a Radiant or a Paragon.
  Overall Grade: A. Won't do everything - see, again, slow - but good at what it does.

...And then there's this thing.

• Shock Repeater: A combined point-defense-and-EMP gun that stands out at neither role. If what you need is point defense, you're better off with an LRPD laser or a burst PD laser - the shock repeater does, at least, perform better than a basic PD laser or a mining laser, albeit at an egregious cost in terms of both ordnance points and flux. If what you need is EMP, take an ion cannon; it's cheaper, longer range, vastly lower flux cost, and won't get distracted trying to repeatedly EMP a broadsword's flares. If feel you absolutely must have both PD and EMP in the same small energy slot, my advice to you is to come up with some other variant that doesn't require that.
  Overall Grade: D. It's possible to make ship variants that use one or two of these and still function, generally by being agile enough that they don't need a lot of PD in the first place and can actually get use out of the Shock Repeater's ability to disable missile guidance. But even there the weapon's low range is a nearly-crippling flaw, and you're generally best served by using something else. Unfortunate, because the shock repeater is honestly neat... it's just not actually any good.

[tseikk1]

Huh. Two different playthroughs where i've cleared two or more doritos, and i dont think i've ever gotten a rift beam, reality disruptor or a torpedo launcher.

On the topic of the weapons themselves, i'd rate some differently. From my experience, the cryoweapons are by far the best of them. Especially the blaster, it just obliterates ANY hull, and does so quickly. S- for cryoflamer, S for blaster from me. If blaster was just an OP or two cheaper it'd get S+. Volatile particle driver is at its best when used as a one of on a autopulse radiant to force shields down, in that role it gets an A. Antimatter missile I find you rate too highly; yes, it does a lot of damage and is infinite ammo, but its flux cost means smaller ships can't really use it. A+.

[Amoebka]

I don't understand why everyone loves the cryoflamer so much. Extremely short-ranged ammo-limited energy with terribly low per-shot damage and 1.0 efficiency. Literally a worse pulse laser for more OP.

Antimatter SRM is surprisingly rubbish for AI because they dump it into shields on cooldown.

Rift torpedo is an overrated meme weapon. It costs far too much flux to fire and is easy to shoot down. I can't name a single situation where I would want it over a hurricane.

The only weapons I like so far are cryoblasters and minipulsers.

[bob888w]

Huh neither in my shielded caches or my Doritos fights have I seen the rift beam or the MRM launcher. Wished the drops were more standardized in these rare cases, so I might need to CMD spawn them in I guess. These weapon evaluations otherwise seem pretty good, aside from the antimatter missiles, they are designated as anti-fighter and it seems like the AI I give it to can never use it effectively

[AcaMetis]

I'm still at a loss as to what I'm supposed to shoot with these weapons after I've defeated the hardest enemies in the game to get them.

Spoiler

Secret cache, I know, but all I got out of that in my game was a couple small weapons that didn't seem to do anything that regular weapons couldn't.

[close]

[Histidine]

I don't understand why everyone loves the cryoflamer so much. Extremely short-ranged ammo-limited energy with terribly low per-shot damage and 1.0 efficiency. Literally a worse pulse laser for more OP.

?

[Amoebka]

Either there was a stealth balance change or I'm dumb. Likely the latter.

Still wouldn't call it good, though. It's anemic against armor and shieldbreaking is surprisingly no longer an issue for high-tech.

[Anvel]

Either there was a stealth balance change or I'm dumb. Likely the latter.

Still wouldn't call it good, though. It's anemic against armor and shieldbreaking is surprisingly no longer an issue for high-tech.

It's not the best weapon from the last update, yes, but on some ships it's devastating.

[Mordodrukow]

Still wouldn't call it good, though.

+
Medium, 15 points, 400 range, damage split it 2 parts.
P.S. Well, if it has really big number of charges, may be it is OK...


What i really need is:
1) heavy pulse laser like one from Interstellar imperium mod
2) some good non-beam long ranged energy weapon

[Arcagnello]

I will admit I savescummed the Dorito fights during my second campaign using Overridden Auroras not because I kept getting losses, but because they were not dropping the Cryoflamers.

Those things, plus some AM blasters on the Aurora's front hardpoints just murder stuff when under AI control. I love it.

[Embolism]

The Rift Lance is excellent for ships reliant on small energy weapons, e.g. phase frigates, Scarab, maybe Shrike. It has exactly the same DPS as a Phase Lance (and same range) in a small weapon slot, though perhaps not as much armour penetration.

The Rift Beam I think is too much OP to pay for PD.

The Cryoblaster is basically a Heavy Blaster with less punch (but deals humongous damage to bare hull), slower shot speed and superior flux efficiency at the cost of 4 more OP. Aside from its ability to quickly finish off enemies, it feels like a sidegrade to the Heavy Blaster in many cases.

The Cryoflamer is a charge-based energy weapon done right IMO. It can actually sustain its maximum DPS for a workable amount of time without Expanded Magazines, and recharges fast enough that many ships will flux out before they get to the extra charges.

Minipulser is basically a weaker light needler with less range and smaller bursts after the initial one. Like the Rift Lance it's useful for ships reliant on small energies, but it really doesn't need to be hybrid because it's inferior to most ballistic kinetics.

One of the benefits of missile weapons is that they cost no flux to fire. The new missile weapons all cost energy and all recharge slowly, which I feel makes them shittier versions of normal weapons if used in a ship-to-ship duel. Overall I think they're meant to be used on backline support ships, especially the Resonator. On the frontlines, conventional missiles and torpedoes would probably serve you better (and cost less OP).

Agree the Shock Repeater is shockingly bad.

[Arcagnello]

Agree the Shock Repeater is shockingly bad.

You could even say it does not pack nearly as much shock value as expected.

[Megas]

• Rift Cascade Emitter: Murderous doom in a gun. Pairs well with a Tachyon Lance - they've got the same firing rate. The AI has issues aiming the thing, though; if it's under AI control, and the host ship is turning (and outside of simulator duels, the host ship is basically always turning), and the target is anything smaller than a cruiser... it's going to miss. (And then sometimes it misses the cruisers, too.) Also, if you have two of these in a linked group, they usually pick either the same or almost-the-same locations for their rifts, which just doesn't look as good as if the rifts arced in opposite directions.
  Overall Grade: A+. Only held back from S-grade by its mediocre performance on AI-controlled ships.

I was disappointed by this weapon.  Compared to Tachyon Lance, the emitter costs more OP and consumes more flux.  And what do I get from this?  A little more damage if the beam explodes gloriously.  Oh, and the explosion chance varies by distance, less at longer range, so its damage is not so great if you snipe with it, and sniping is the point of this Tachyon Lance knock-off.  Also, unlike Tachyon Lance, it lacks EMP and shield piercing.  I think Tachyon Lance is the better weapon, and it is better to get more Tachyon Lances than mix this weapon in.  It is very flashy, and fun to use, but a letdown overall.

I placed this on my Ziggurat, for one emitter and one lance.  After a few fights, I took the emitter off and placed the second lance back on Ziggurat.

I thought the burst damage from explosions would be good for overloading, and tried the beam hard-flux hullmod, but AI lowered shield in time most of the time before getting overloaded.  I was better off getting plasma cannon instead if I wanted a hard flux weapon.

With that said, it is very flashy, and it works much like a Tachyon Lance.  If I wanted a Tachyon Lance, but found this first, I would use it until I found Tachyon Lance, then replace the emitter with Tachyon Lance.  As for grade, I would rate it either the same or one less than Tachyon Lance.  I probably would give emitter a B at best.

I would not call Rift Cascade Emitter a General weapon.  It is a Tachyon Lance that does a bit more damage at the cost of no EMP, no shield pierce, and greater flux and OP costs.  In other words, it is probably a Suppression weapon.

If I was willing to pay the costs for Rift Cascade Emitter, I should get plasma cannon instead.

[Ishman]

• Resonator MRM Launcher: Compared to a sabot pod, the Resonator is expensive and lacking in punch... but it also has better range and tracking, and never runs out of ammunition. Probably not worth using on a ship with Expanded Missile Racks and a Missile Spec officer, but still just generally a good weapon. (And I, personally, am quite fond of giving my AI-controlled ships weapons that they can't completely waste all their ammunition with.)
  Overall Grade: B, maybe B+. It's good, but not amazing, and even for the role of medium kinetic-damage missile, you won't always want to be using these.

I'm not sure how you came to this conclusion about resonators, but excepting the arc emitters (bad in dragon's HTE mod, bad here) - they're easily the worst of the triangle weapons. Yes, the barrage is longer ranged than a light needler, but that's what it is - a tracking, interceptable light needler, that you're paying 16op and a medium missile slot for. This... this is not a good trade. There's almost no ship that can afford to mount a missile slot with such low impact for such expense, except for pure carriers (which are enormously OP starved and unlikely to be able to afford something more than twice as expensive as a pilum).

You give up 36(!!) sabots for 6 more op, in exchange for infinite 80 kinetic dps.

I rate it somewhere in the neighborhood of the thumper and mining laser.

[Anvel]

• Resonator MRM Launcher: Compared to a sabot pod, the Resonator is expensive and lacking in punch... but it also has better range and tracking, and never runs out of ammunition. Probably not worth using on a ship with Expanded Missile Racks and a Missile Spec officer, but still just generally a good weapon. (And I, personally, am quite fond of giving my AI-controlled ships weapons that they can't completely waste all their ammunition with.)
  Overall Grade: B, maybe B+. It's good, but not amazing, and even for the role of medium kinetic-damage missile, you won't always want to be using these.

I'm not sure how you came to this conclusion about resonators, but excepting the arc emitters (bad in dragon's HTE mod, bad here) - they're easily the worst of the triangle weapons. Yes, the barrage is longer ranged than a light needler, but that's what it is - a tracking, interceptable light needler, that you're paying 16op and a medium missile slot for. This... this is not a good trade. There's almost no ship that can afford to mount a missile slot with such low impact for such expense, except for pure carriers (which are enormously OP starved and unlikely to be able to afford something more than twice as expensive as a pilum).

You give up 36(!!) sabots for 6 more op, in exchange for infinite 80 kinetic dps.

I rate it somewhere in the neighborhood of the thumper and mining laser.

Agreed, to become somewhat usable it needs to restore all its ammunition not only 4, for example, if the ship has missile racks or skill let it restore 8 missiles, if the ship has perk and MR let it restore 12 missiles per tick, then it becomes worthy to use.